Pardon Me, But Didn't You Used To Be Drake Maye?

Maybe it’s regression to the mean. Or a reality check. Or come-uppance. Or just a slump. Or a percolating Curse of Tom Brady.

Whatever it is, it has Drake Maye in its grip, and he cannot escape.

The Jacksonville Jaguars thumped the New England Patriots 35-6 on Sunday. Maye was dreadful in the game: two interceptions, a fumble which slipped from his hand during a long windup like soap in a bubble bath, some floaters to nobody, and lots of plays where he stood in a secure pocket and looked down the field as if he were trying to solve one of those logic problems on the LSAT.

Maye was the primary reason the Patriots lost to the Jaguars. He was also the primary reason they lost to the Seahawks in Week 1. He made the Week 2 Steelers win much harder than it should have been. Maye now has six interceptions through three games, plus the fumble and nine sacks, and just one touchdown pass.  

So what’s going on?

The theory making the rounds among Patriots observers, as Aaron Schatz pointed out on our FTN podcast last Thursday, is that Maye suddenly cannot cope with Cover-6 defenses.

Now, there’s a Silver Age superhero weakness if I ever heard one. Maye can handle Covers-2, 3, 4 and 7 with aplomb. But quarter-quarter-half coverage turns him into Bizarro, prompting him to chuck it into crowds in the end zone and randomly drop the football instead of throwing it. Is he vulnerable to the color yellow, too? What happens if he says his name backwards?

(Maye said after the game that his tragicomic fumble was the result of blood on the football: center Jared Wilson's hand was apparently bleeding. Gross. But, watching the replay, it doesn't look like the football was a prop from a Saw movie or something. Maye fumbled that ball as if it had marinated for six hours in extra virgin olive oil.)

No, I am not buying the Cover-6 theory. There’s something else. Or perhaps several somethings else.

Last year, Maye was the NFL’s best deep passer, by observation and by most statistical measures. His deep throws were gorgeous. And the defenders trying to cover them often played as if their game controllers were unplugged. 

Strength-of-schedule arguments became unpopular late last year, but Maye’s 2025 torrid streak ended just about when he stopped facing the Jets/Dolphins/Bengals/Giants defenses and started facing real opponents. The Patriots defense, with help from the weather and the Texans/Chargers offenses, bailed Maye out when he struggled in the playoffs last year. The same thing nearly happened in Week 1. But the 2026 Jaguars aren’t so easy to push around on sunny days in Jacksonville.

There’s also the Curse of Tom Brady, or at least the challenge of succeeding him. A young Patriots quarterback who performs well gets excessive Chosen One accolades, as Mac Jones surely recalls. Patriots fans don't want a promising up-and-comer. They want a Next Brady. My colleagues are often overeager to provide one, fast-forwarding the youngster through the intermediate stages between impressive hotshot and Heir to the GOAT.

Maye remained the Can't-Miss Kid through the entire offseason. A.J. Brown's arrival only turned up the volume, making Maye's continued ascendance a June talking point. Such effusive, ceaseless adulation cannot just be "tuned out." Next Big Thing status, and the expectations that come with it, can be hazardous to the decision making process of a just-turned-24 superstar.

Maye isn’t playing like a quarterback befuddled by common coverage schemes. He’s playing like a quarterback who thinks he can throw footballs through the bodies of defenders like Travis Hunter, Patrick Queen and Jarrian Jones. He is trying to score two touchdowns and prove that he belongs in the Mahomes/Allen/Jackson conversation with every throw. He’s pressing, which is causing more mistakes, which is causing him to press harder.

Maye will eventually snap out of this funk. He has to, otherwise he will throw 34 interceptions this season! But seriously, he’s far more talented than Jones, the last victim of Brady expectations, and the Jets and Dolphins will eventually give him some chances to play through the tutorial and regain a little confidence.

But the Patriots face the 3-0 Bills next week. A loss drops them to 1-3. It won’t eliminate the Patriots from playoff contention, because the AFC Wild Card broth is already thick and murky, and also Jets/Dolphins. But it will land them at the bottom of a rather deep hole.

In the long run, perhaps this slump/regression/curse is a blessing for Maye. It’s a humbling, that-which-does-not-kill-thee experience, occurring early enough in the season and in Maye’s career to be forgotten by December. Maye needed a kick in the pants. He now has a footprint on each butt cheek.

Maye has lost his Golden Child status. He's now hearing criticism (some of it unfair) that's just as loud as last year's overenthusiastic hosannas. Maye, now a mere mortal, joins Trevor Lawrence, Dak Prescott, Jared Goff and others on the NFL's Overreaction Tier. In the weeks/months/years to come, he will be awesome, awful, unstoppable, unwatchable, secretly overrated, tragically underrated, overhyped, (someday) overpaid, underappreciated, and sometimes all of these things and more to different observers at the same time.

So welcome back to earth, Drake Maye. You can have a long, lucrative, semi-successful career as the up-and-down guy we build podcasts and Monday morning columns around. But be careful: the Overreaction Tier will define you if you let it. So don't try to ignore your critics. Instead, close the book on 2025, shake off the last three weeks as best you can, and use next week's Bills game to start rewriting your own destiny.

Sunday Night Spotlight: Denver Broncos 30, Los Angeles Rams 26

What Happened

The Rams coasted out to a 16-0 lead. The Broncos offense, you see, doesn’t do first halves: the Broncos have just 10 first half points through three games. The Rams kept driving to the edge of the red zone, committing penalties and settling for field goals: the perfect recipe for Broncos comeback mayhem.

The Broncos defense clamped down at the start of the second half. Their offense manufactured a grueling third-quarter touchdown drive out of a 28-yard punt return and four third-down conversions. A short punt from deep in Rams territory set up another Broncos touchdown drive and two-point conversion. Tie ballgame.

An Omar Speights interception of Bo Nix set up a Rams field goal. Talanoa Hufanga called Speights and raised him, jumping in front of a Matthew Stafford throw to Kyren Williams for a pick-6. Undaunted, Stafford engineered his smoothest series of the night: three passes to Konata Mumpfield, doing his best Puka Nacua impersonation, for 78 yards and a quick touchdown.

The ensuing Rams kickoff resulted in a touchback, because the Rams have a blind spot about how bad their special teams are. Nix threw two completions for 60 yards to get the Broncos into the red zone.

Then things got stupid.

Josh Wallace intercepted a Nix pass to Pat Bryant along the right sideline. Officials called pass interference. There was ample contact. Wallace appeared to muscle Bryant away from the ball. Replays showed that Bryant was pushing back a bit before channeling William Shatner getting zapped by an invisible pain beam. Instead of Game Over for the Rams, it was first down for the Broncos.

Another ticky-tack penalty, this time hands-to-the-face against Quentin Lake in coverage against Waddle, gave the Broncos another first down on third-and-5.

Nix appeared to leap for a touchdown at the right pylon. Upon further review, he stepped out of bounds. Astute observers spotted Trent McDuffie getting held by a Broncos tight end just behind Nix. No call.

After a Rams encroachment penalty moved the ball about four inches closer to the goal line, Nix leapt over the line of scrimmage, barely, for the game-winning touchdown. Stafford’s spirited final drive ended with a second Hufanga interception in the end zone. 

What It Means for the Rams

Yes, they got hosed at the end. 

I think the Wallace DPI call, while ticky-tack, was accurate. The defender had his hands on Bryant and rode him out of bounds. A better receiver would fight through the contact, but DPI isn’t dependent on how tough the receiver is. I would have preferred a no-call, too; I would be in bed right now instead of typing this if Wallace intercepted that pass. But the DPI was just a garden-variety judgment call. Criticism of it really snowballed on social media, with folks getting a little swept up in the drama.

Anyway, that penalty AND the Lake penalty AND the uncalled hold right next to a diving Nix was just too many questionable one-sided calls in a row. 

So the Rams were the victims of some dubious officiating. They also settled for too many field goals, couldn’t stop Broncos two-point conversions and continued to make unforced errors on special teams. They allowed the Broncos to hang around. Then they paid for it. 

The Dream Team to End All Dream Teams is now two games behind the 49ers in the NFC West chase. They’ll bounce back when Puka is healthy, then bounce back some more and start demolishing everyone when Myles Garrett returns. Until then, every Rams loss feels like a mini-disaster. I would feel bad for them if they weren’t so darn gratifying to root against.

What It Means for the Broncos

Bo Nix is the worst good quarterback I have ever seen, or perhaps the best terrible one. Watching the Broncos offense is like watching eye surgery. Better teams will be able to run straight at the Broncos defense: Blake Corum rushed for 69 yards in the first half on Sunday night, but the Rams got away from the run in the third quarter.

The Broncos cannot keep winning the way they did against both the Jaguars and Rams. Too many opponents will do what the Chiefs did in Week 1: step on their necks after taking a lead. But the Broncos defense, and Nix’s fourth-quarter sang froid, will keep the team in the playoff chase, making lots of opponents and viewers miserable along the way.

What’s Next

No rest for the wicked: the Broncos visit the 3-0 49ers in Week 4, while the Rams head for the East Coast for an early game against the still-undefeated-at-this-writing Eagles.

Rio??? Bravo!!! Baltimore Ravens 34, Dallas Cowboys 31

What Happened

The Ravens and Cowboys neatly overlap from a storytelling standpoint.

The Ravens excel at utterly outclassing their opponents, then losing because of a few mistakes, usually in short yardage situations. The Cowboys use their international games, Thanksgiving games and other unearned moments in the spotlight to dramatically strut and fret like hambone thespians: every Game of the Week is a surrogate mini-Super Bowl for them.  

Sunday’s overheated back-and-forth battle in Rio De Janeiro, under the circumstances, turned out exactly as we should have expected.